Juniper Lee (Juniper Lee)
Juniper "June" Kim Lee is an 11-year old1 Asian-American girl granted with magical powers that gift her the abilities and title of Te Xuan Ze, thus allowing her to be the protector of the hidden world of magic. It is her duty, as Te Xuan Ze, to keep the balance between good and bad magic and keep the world of humanity in the dark about its' magical counterpart. But, because of her young age, Juniper faces many struggles in balancing her normal and magical life, and keeping her powers a secret from her family and friends. When she's not involved in some magical hullabaloo, Juniper acts just like any normal pre-teen girl. She likes to hang out with her friends and enjoys doing sports such as volleyball and skate-boarding. She also plays guitar and is a lead singer in her own band along with her brothers Dennis and Ray Ray. History Origins: Awakening as Te Xuan Ze Not much is known about Juniper's early life aside that she was born a Chinese American like her parents and brothers. She grew up as a normal little girl in Orchid Bay City until she earned the powers of the Te Xuan Ze through her family's magical lineage.2 One day, while visiting her Ah-Mah, Juniper was plagued by a painful stomach ache. This stomach ache was later revealed to be part of the activation of her Te Xuan Ze powers, and it eventually reached its zenith when some demons attempted to infiltrate the house to identify and eliminate the new Te Xuan Ze, endangering her younger brother. After a short trance-like spell where her eyes glowed and time seemed non-existent, June discovered that she was able to see the monsters attacking the her grandma's home, and that she had developed superhuman strength and agility. In addition to this, one streak of her hair had turned white much like her Ah-Mah's (which is in fact the Te Xuan Ze trademark). After getting rid of the demons and saving her brother Ray Ray, June took up the mantle of Te Xuan Ze to eventually replace her grandmother.3 Season 1 At the beginning of the series June has been the Te Xuan Ze for over a month, and her ability to see and talk to magic creatures has given her the reputation of a crazy girl4. During this season she saves the worlds from several magic threats such as Sandman 5 and Loki 6. However, one of the most important moments is when Auntie Roon is released from her banishment 400 years ago and lifts the magical veil between the human and magic world in the Mall 7. After battling her, Roon is again cast out with the same trick that Monroe used the first time and Juniper performs a ceremony spell with Ah-Mah to summon the elders and undo all the events that happened up to Roon being brought back from banishment. At first her reputation in the magical worlds as a Te Xuan Ze wasn't quite as recognized and appreciated as the one of her Ah-Mah. It wasn't until she saved the monsters in the Monster Con from H.A.M. that she earned the respect and admiration from most magical beings8. Season 2 Season two starts with Halloween. June is shown to have more hobbies and events outside of magic as well as weirder problems to solve, such as cloning her brother's body.9 She also helps prisoners of a zoo escape. An evil demon lady makes evil photocopies of June and her friends. In one episode, she accidentally becomes a reality TV show star on a Monster TV network because her helping monsters in danger was noticed by a reality show host whose show she had shut down on grounds of obstructing her work with false cries of help. June attends her best friend Jody's birthday party, but has to stop a weird elderly demon from ruining it. When June can't defeat a comicbook baddie reanimated to non-magical life, Ray Ray's favourite hero Boomfist is brought to life as well. Juniper and Ray Ray's joining the magical world is recounted by their grandmother Jasmine in Adventures in Babysitting. During Easter, June, Monroe and Ray Ray are summoned to the world of the Easter bunny to settle a dispute between the easter bunnies painting and delivering Easter eggs and the chicken who lay them. Here they meet Monroe's father again, who stokes the feud between the two sides instead. In the next episode Juniper has to replace Ah-Mah on a diplomatic meeting, but accidentally turns Ray Ray into her body-double, instead of Monroe, resulting in a switch-a-roo. After arriving at the meeting, she is instead locked into a room that looks like banishment, as the goblins on one of the sides wanted to off her grandma, but decide to continue with the plan with her. Meanwhile, Monroe and Ray Ray learn the meaning of teamwork and thwart the offing attempt without Juniper. Skeeter makes a return in Welcome Bat Otter, where he turns a rumor into a business. When June and team try to stop him, they find that the Bat Otter is actually real. Here, Juniper's compassionate side is let out as she saves the creature from Skeeter instead. In this season, June is excited about leaving to Space Camp in California, leaning closer to her dream of being an astronaut one day, but duty calls when some leprechaun's open a cave, releasing a dangerous creature that can be seen by humans. After chasing an escaped Bombat all the way through a park, a dogshow, a cafe to the city limits, she discovers that she cannot leave Orchid Bay City, as it is surrounded by a magical veil meant to keep both truly evil magic as well as active Te Xuan Ze in. As she tears up and tries to deny the truth, Ah-Mah recounts the conditions sadly to Juniper. Becoming angered by her situation, June in turn accuses Ah-Mah of gallivanting around the world, enjoying her retirement. Jasmine however explains that she has been looking for a loophole for Juniper to be able to leave the town despite being stuck in the role of the protector at such a young age. In Dream Date, Juniper asks Marcus out to the school dance, but all hell breaks loose as Thor and his Valkyries threaten school with destruction. It's revealed that Marcus has always liked her, just never knew that June liked him back. The season ends with Juniper helping Ah-Mah come to terms with her over-bearing human family in Party Monsters. Season 3 Things get a little bit more difficult for Juniper and friends in season 3 as stakes are raised, friendships are tested and old foes resurface. The season starts with Who's Your Daddy?, where a new boy called Taylor transfers to the school, causing excitement even among student's as stoic as Ophelia. He seems to take a liking to June, getting along with everyone except Marcus especially well and even encourages her to compete more earnestly in the school sports competition as he thinks that she is simply better than everyone else. Juniper feels good about this at first and does try more at some of the categories, even inspiring even Ophelia to compete, just to win out of spite towards Melissa. She gives herself a losing streak after Monroe reminds her to avoid any attention. Despite Monroe's admonishments, Juniper miraculously continues to win competition after competition, eventually resorting to magic to make Ophelia win more competitions instead. However, when she is later given one of the 1st place medallions by Marcus, she is transported away to an unknown cave, where she is greeted by Taylor, who is revealed to be the son of Loki, plotting to exchange places with Juniper in banishment. Taylor, having second thoughts, admits to liking June for real, after which him and his father battle out in transformations and blasts. Taylor traps his father and says goodbye to June who is transported back to her home by Monroe and Ray Ray via summoning. It is unclear where their relationship is left but even June admits at the end that he might not have been an entirely bad kid after all. Juniper encounters a new world as she goes to the magical underwater kingdom of Aqualandia under Orchid Bay to ask help from their king stop a water company from depleting the city of it's magical water. When her and Rogers family go on a hiking trip, Juniper makes a new friend in Lila, a sasquatch living in the forests of Orchid Bay. Lila then moves in with June's grandma Jasmine, as she wishes to learn more about humankind and fit into human society. When introducing Lila to her school, June is convinced by Jody to run as class president in her stead. June helps Lila fit in with her friends even more at Jody's sleepover, and comforts the other girl when she starts to doubt her stay in the city by telling Lila about her own experiences with not fitting in. In Out of the Past Juniper is forced to fight an ancient ancestor-gone-rogue by the name of Kai Yee and as she battles to defeat Kai Yee, gains more insight into her powers as a Te Xuan Ze with the help of her Ah-Mah. A while later, Dennis accidentally summons Wrongness again while experimenting with June's real magic books and when they can't dust his memory, Juniper feels that it is her responsibility to bring him up to speed on magic. Going through a long trek on Orchid Bay rock banks, Juniper is on her way to be promoted to the rank of Kanji but wwhen when Ah-Mah is zapped of her magic, it is impossible to finish the ceremony. June and crew try to find the culprit who proves to be a challenge to beat with Te Xuan Ze magic flowing through them and a sudden plan to end the line of the Te Xuan Ze and the world of magic, similar to Kai Yee. Juniper confronts her grandma about the importance of the promotion and is explained that it is actually a very official and big event. Later at the real ceremony June meets the Magical Elders. When a dragon-egg snatcher is hiding his steal at the Orchid Bay clock-tower, June and her classmates discover him and a fight ensues, resulting in the entire field-trip group, including June, frozen in time. They are saved by Ray Ray Lee, who as the only person to remember Juniper and everyone else, has come to save them. Aside from this, Juniper is also surprised to see that he is also a Te Xuan Ze now. Despite having a fun time defeating the Time Wraiths, Juniper does not remember any of this happening due to the time anomaly happening at all. Juniper and crew stop an evil old monster lady duo of entrepreneurs who are selling monsters dangerous snacks despite the risks and Monroe is turned into a mindless monster. H.A.M. makes it's final appearance, as well as the demoness and her father. The show's protagonists go up against Auntie Roon as a final confrontation, but this time, using the Te Xuan Ze bracelet, she has manipulated Juniper to be on her side by turning her into a monster with a plan to take down the Magical Veil, once and for all. The battle seems impossible, but somehow, Ray Ray and Monroe get through to her and with the help of Dennis and Lila, they stop Roon, who is banished by Juniper. At the end of the long day, Juniper thanks her family and friends for dealing with the problem while she could not. Suddenly hearing the regular trouble-alerting chime from her bracelet, she jumps off Ah-Mah's balcony and travels to the city to deal with it, unaware that Jody has witnessed her impossibly superhuman jumping from building to building. Clothes and appearances June is an pre-teen asian-american girl, with a tall build and long black straight hair which almost reaches her waist, complimented by a pink wisp running down the rest of her hair from the left side of where her hairline starts. As mentioned by her grandmother and Monroe, it is historically known as the Mark of the Te Xuan Ze. It is unknown whether it naturally changed color or whether it was colored by June herself, but it's been shown that other Te Xuan Ze either had the same color, a different color (Jasmine), or lacked one entirely. According to Ray Ray and various monsters, she has very long legs, excellent for out-running almost any big monster. She has three freckles above her nose forming almost a triangle. She is apparently also known for having fairly large feet for a kid her age, even though she wears only size 3 shoes.10 She has said about herself as having hair too straight and a flat nose. June's every-day clothes are a pair of brown boots; a pair of deep blue jeans which flare slightly and have three crossing strings at opposite sides where the jeans split; a green T-shirt with short sleeves and dark-red edges as well as a stylized dragonfly logo of the same color. Juniper wore this same logo as hair pins on either side of her bangs before she got her powers as a grade-schooler. Powers and Abilities Powers Being Te Xuan Ze, June possesses many magical and superhuman abilities that help her deal with the different creatures of the magical world, such as: * Superhuman Strength: June is superhumanly strong and is typically able to lift and take down a giant monster with little to no effort. She is strong enough to literally punch her way out of 200 feet of concrete11 and easily lift a 3.716 pound monster.12 This places her strength level slightly over 2 tons. * Superhuman Speed: She is capable of running and accelerating to high speeds which a normal human could never achieve. She is fast enough to run down a building from its' roof and catch a falling person13 as well as fast enough to dodge attacks from demons, various monsters and demi-gods, but not fully-powered gods.1415 * Superhuman Stamina: June's musculature produces considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. She can physically exert herself at peak capacity for hours before fatigue begins to impair her. * Superhuman Durability: The tissues of her body are considerably harder and more resistant to physical injury than those of an ordinary human. Juniper is capable of withstanding great impact forces, falls from great heights, exposure to temperature and pressure extremes, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining any serious injury. * Superhuman Agility: June's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. * Superhuman Reflexes: Her reflexes are heightened in a similar manner and are superior to those of the finest human athlete. * Magic Vision: Basic ability of seeing through the magical barrier keeping the worlds of magic and humanity separate * Magic: June can also use a wide array of magical artifacts (stones, scepters, wands, etc.) to aid her in battle. The spell she uses the most is the banishing spell.16 * Magic Immunity: She has some degree of immunity to some magical effects, I.E. Sandman's sleeping spell. * Magical Energy Absorption: As a Te Xuan Ze she can tap into the magical energy that empowers her when she is in the elder's realm in order to enhance her powers. After absorbing magic from the source of her powers, she was able to defeat Kai Yee.17 On one occasion she stated that she doesn't have any magical powers even though her powers come from an ancient magic and she can do spells, as well as other characters having said that she has magical powers.18 This makes the nature of her powers ambiguous at the best. It is most likely that she meant flashy "super" powers which many monsters in her world have. Abilities * Proficiency in Sorcery: June is trained in sorcery and witchcraft. She can use spells, magical artifacts, summon portals and make potions. This combined with her own resourcefulness also makes her knowledgeable in improvising spells for completely different outcomes, such as when she used a goblin transportation item to save someone from being in an irreversible monster body forever.19 Her training is part of the responsibilities she takes on as Te Xuan Ze. * Experienced Combatant: June has no formal knowledge of hand-to-hand combat. However, her powers enable her to execute fighting moves with superhuman force at an opponent. Additionally, her short career as the current Te Xuan Ze has given her plenty of combat experience. According to Ah-Mah, in very little time she has become an extremely adept warrior.20 Many of her techniques and moves come from fiction and video-games. 21 * Weapons Mastery: June has some mastery in the use of weapons such a swords, axes, flails and mallets despite preferring to use her own fists. Her extensive training and resourcefulness also make her very good at improvising weapons out of anything. She was also a capable user of the Wushu staff, a traditional weapon of all Te Xuan Ze.22 * Guitar Player: She is a proficient guitar player. * Singer: She is a proficient singer. * Sports: Juniper has taken on many hobbies and is adept at most of them. Her favorite hobby sports seem to be skate-boarding, surf-boarding, basketball and volleyball. * Acting: Juniper has been cast as an actor many times before, particularly by Ophelia. Weaknesses Inability to leave Orchid Bay: since she is a Te Xuan Ze she cannot physically leave Orchid Bay, which she discovered while trying to catch a Bombat. She can never pass beyond the magical veil at the city's border put in place to ensure a Te Xuan Ze will always protect Orchid Bay and it's magical and human inhabitants from great evil. Juniper will be able to do so only once she has kids of her own to take on the mantle. Family and Friends Ray Ray Lee Ray Ray is June's little brother and self-proclaimed sidekick. Due to a mishap caused by three demons when Juniper got her Te Xuan Ze powers, Ray Ray was imbued with some of her power and can see through the magical veil. However, as stated in "Adventures in Babysitting", while Ray Ray does not have any other powers, they may appear at a much later time. While June is annoyed at some of Ray Ray's antics, she actually cares about him deeply and is often seen worrying about him. Dennis Lee Dennis is Juniper's older brother by three years. Although he acts like the stereotypical teenager with an addiction to TV and video games at the beginning of the series, he eventually changes his attitude once he learns of Juniper's role as Te Xuan Ze. He becomes a new sidekick to June and even shows greater knowledge in magic than her thanks to his live-action role-play gaming. Prior to this, June and Ray Ray both tease Dennis occasionally. As much as June finds Dennis grating at times, she would never let anything bad happen to him. Jasmine Lee Jasmine or Ah-Mah (literally: "Grandma"), is Juniper's paternal grandmother, and the previous Te Xuan Ze. Not only does she pass on her knowledge and skills as a warrior of good, she also supports June emotionally, giving her advice about her every-day life. They sometimes play basketball together, one-on-one, which Jasmine wins almost all times. A doting gram throughout most of the show's seasons, she is also a fierce believer in Juniper's potential for good, this only wavering when she feels afraid for her grand-daughter. Jody Irwin Juniper's best friend and vice versa. They enjoy each other's company and share an interest in space - Juniper through space travel and Jody through astronomy. In season one, Jody is vice-chief to Juniper's chief of their school's Newspaper Club. Jody considers June to be the most popular, well-liked and talented person in their school and loves being there for June, sometimes coming up with elaborate plans in June's favor. June hates seeing Jody cry and would do anything to help her out a jam. Because of this she nearly skips out on her Te Xuan Ze duties to help her out. On many occasions, Jody has noticed June being weird or "distracted" and even says so, but this does not hinder their friend-ship beyond a few strained school-projects. Ophelia Ramírez June and Ophelia share a dry wit and sense of humor. They both care about their friend Jody immensely and have similar music taste. Ophelia often likes giving June tiny sarcastic pep-talks. Because she likes being subversive, on two occasions she has cast June in roles of the opposite gender but seems to genuinely like seeing June in leading roles. During school trips or bus rides they often discuss their daily lives. Ophelia actually trusts June a lot and depends on her, making her feel incredibly let down whenever the other girl can't make it to a promised meeting on time and cant give reasonable explanations either. June thinks she knows Ophelia well enough to be taken aback when Ophelia giggles or does anything frilly or out of character. Ophelia considers June her best friend. Roger Radcliffe Roger is the kind of friend who likes being in with the times and acting cool but actually falls short on both ends. Roger actually hangs around with Ray Ray more and seems to be most comfortable around the two Lee siblings. This might simply be because Roger and June's dads work in the same office space or firm so their families and seem to know each other well. Both families sometimes go camping together, leaving June to look out for Ray Ray and Roger. Despite or because of this, Roger seemed to be hurt when June said "ev" of his crush on June's "cousin" Roxanne (in actuality Jasmine in disguise) but does not seem to hold onto this for long. Lila Lila is Juniper's newest confidante next to Ray Ray, Monroe and Ah-Mah and a sasquatch from the Orchid Bay forest. After June had met Lila, she made fast friends with the sasquatch girl and immediately invited her to come with them back to the city, sympathizing with Lila's want to know human culture and do normal things. Lila goes to school with June after this and eventually becomes liked with all of June's closest friends as well. June often comforts Lila in her uncertainties about blending into human culture and Lila has helped June with occasional Te Xuan Ze duties23 or helping Jasmine24. As a biped animal, Lila can see through the magic veil and is thus included in the group fairly quickly as the secret does not need to be kept from her. She is strong enough to fight on par with Juniper and even a seasoned hand-to-hand fighter such as Auntie Roon. The first thing June does after getting Lila to live in the city in her grandma's house is take Lila to see a movie with explosions, something Lila had always wanted to see more of. Trivia * She likes roller-blading, Hawaiian pizza and the drummer from No Doubt.25 * On free days off she also likes going surfboarding, such as when she went out with family and friends, surf-boarding along with her friend Ophelia.26 * She is the first ever to be Te Xuan Ze as a child when it was supposed to be her parent instead.27 * At school, June is involved in the Volleyball Club, Math Club and Asian Club. In the first season, she was also the head editor of the Newspaper Club. She also ran for class president against a school bully (for the sake of a friend). 28 * The juniper flower (for which June was possibly named after) is a symbol of protection. This reflects Juniper's duty to protect the magical world as the Te Xuan Ze. * She weighs 73 Pounds soaking wet.29 * Juniper has mentioned an interest in becoming an astronaut on a few occasions. In season two's Dog Show Afternoon, she eventually signs up for a national space camp in California but cannot attend due to being an active Te Xuan Ze. * Juniper has appeared as the main playable character in three online games based on her show.30 * Juniper appeared as a non-playable character in Cartoon Network's 2009 MMO Fusionfall.31 * Juniper has appeared as a non-speaking cameo in OK KO - as a statue in the 2018 episode Crossover Nexus.32 Category:2000s Category:Female Heroes Category:Juniper Lee